Effect of high glucose-induced hyperglycemia on viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV) infection in adult zebrafish

Diets/nutrients have a significant effect on the biological process of all kinds of living organisms, especially high-fat diet or high glucose-induced obesity/diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and considered as global epidemics. In this study, we conducted a high glucose immersion protocol to induce hyperglycemic zebrafish, later on, with the aim to evaluate the relationship between hyperglycemia and Viral Haemorrhagic Septicaemia Virus (VHSV) infection. As a result, zebrafish immersed in a 2000 ppm glucose solution for ten days, fasting blood glucose (FBG) has increased two times as compared to control. In addition, hyperglycemic zebrafish was more susceptible to the virus infection resulted in increased viral mRNA expression levels as well as the viral copy number as 1.7-log higher than control. The data also demonstrated that adult zebrafish fed high glucose/after a VHSV challenge highly increased in mRNA levels of inflammatory cytokines as well as in the expression level of endoplasmic reticulum stress. This knowledge has, in turn, allowed the future studies to understand the crosstalk between metabolic syndrome and infectious disease.